You do great things with your photos in iPhoto. But you’ll do so much more in Aperture. It gives you advanced tools to refine your images. Better ways to organise them all. And stunning ways to show them off. Now iPhoto and Aperture share one library, so your photos can go pro without going anywhere.

iPhoto. Aperture. And the all-in-one library.

Now iPhoto and Aperture share the same photo library. With all your photos in one place, they’re easy to view, edit and manage. And you can switch between iPhoto and Aperture easily. When you need to retouch details using precision brushes or selectively tweak specific colours in a photo, open Aperture. If you want to make calendars and cards with your photos, go back to iPhoto. The unified library is great when there are two people who use the same Mac for both iPhoto and Aperture. All your photos stay together. And you get the best of both applications.*

Your iPhoto library is now your Aperture library.

More selective retouching.

iPhoto gives you great tools for adjusting an entire image. Brushes in Aperture let you paint in the changes you want exactly where you want them, and give you complete control over brush size, softness and intensity. Want to darken the sky without darkening the water? No problem. Aperture can detect the edges of objects to help you edit with precision. You also get 15 Quick Brushes for common adjustments — such as Sharpen and Saturation — that are ready for action.

Image adjustments in iPhotoSelective retouching in Aperture 3

Photo looks and effects.

In iPhoto, it’s easy to apply basic photo effects such as Black & White, Sepia or Edge Blur. It’s just as easy in Aperture, but you can also work with dozens of effects, then customise them for a look that’s all your own. Say you want to make a colour photo black and white. Aperture has nine different black and white styles, including a variety of colour filters, giving you precise control over effects. An on-the-fly preview window helps you find the look you’re after. Once you find it, you can even apply it to an entire album.

Effects in iPhotoLive preview of adjustment effects in Aperture 3

Advanced slideshows.

iPhoto lets you create great click-and-play slideshows. Aperture lets you do more than ever to customise them. Add a personalised soundtrack. Place titles where you want them and use any font, size and colour you like. Set the timing for each slide. And crop photos in your slideshow. You can also change the look of themes, add HD video, and precisely control fades and transitions. With Aperture, your slideshows get a professional-quality look and feel.

Slideshows in iPhotoSlideshows in Aperture 3

Multiple versions of a photo. Minimal hard drive space.

When you want to create an alternative version of a photo, iPhoto duplicates the photo. Aperture stores as many variations as you want in a single image file. That’s big news, because it eats up far less hard drive space than storing duplicate photos. Aperture makes it easy to keep track of all those versions too, so you can use different ones for different projects.

Each version is a new copy in iPhoto.A single copy can have multiple versions in Aperture 3.

Do more with Places and Faces.

If you like using Places and Faces in iPhoto, you’ll love them in Aperture. With Places in Aperture, you can add a location to a photo using data from your GPS-enabled camera or iPhone, or just drag the photo to a location on the interactive map. With Faces, use the corkboard to see all the people in a single project — or across your entire library. You can also search for photos of people you haven’t named yet and easily add their names. Places and Faces in Aperture are just like the features you know from iPhoto, only better.

Basic geotagging in iPhotoAdvanced geotagging support in Aperture 3

All the tools to manage a giant library.

When your photos number in the thousands, you need easier ways to find what you’re looking for. Aperture gives you a head start by automatically grouping your events by year. Within each year, you can create folders that go as deep as you want. And get ready for super-fast searches that sort your photos on the fly. Enter a file type, such as RAW or JPEG, then add a face, place or keyword like “holidays”, and the relevant photos will be served up by year. You can even search by details like the camera or lens you used. The more criteria you add, the faster you can find what you’re looking for. You can also add colour labels, ratings and flags.

Searching in iPhotoSearching in Aperture 3

Merge, sync and split multiple libraries.

Your iPhoto library is your Aperture photo library, automatically. With the new unified library, there’s one place for all your photos. And if you’ve accumulated multiple iPhoto libraries over the years — or you have libraries on different Mac computers — you can now use Aperture to merge them together and still open them in iPhoto. While iPhoto is designed to work with one library at a time, Aperture lets you set up as many libraries as you want and switch between them instantly. And you can export a project with all the related photos or an iPhoto Event as a new library.

Export and merge libraries in Aperture 3

Create custom books.

With iPhoto, you can create fun photo books to share with family and friends. With Aperture, you can get even more creative with fully customisable book layouts. Add, move, resize, rotate or delete photo and text boxes. Place titles exactly where you want them — on any page or even over a photo — and use any font, size and colour you like. Tell a story with multi-column text. Create two-page, full-bleed spreads. Design wrap-around covers. Include travel maps showing where your photos were taken. And add photo borders the width and colour you choose. Aperture makes it easy to create photo books as unique as your photos.

Extra-large hardback book with two-page spread in Aperture 3

Gallery-quality printing.

iPhoto features ready-to-use templates to help you get a great print. With Aperture, you can customise your output and manage colour to get the best print possible on your particular printer. The Print dialogue in Aperture is live, so you can proof your colour adjustments onscreen, then add margins, borders, watermarks and even metadata to include on your print. (None of the changes you make in Print mode affect your original photo.) You can also create amazing contact sheets. Set the size of your photos and number of columns by using a slider, and add a logo or any metadata you want to each sheet.

Printing with a custom border and title in Aperture 3

Never run out of hard drive space.

As your iPhoto library grows, it may become too big to store on your computer’s hard drive. Aperture lets you set up as many external drives as you want and specify where to store each of your photos — without changing anything in your Aperture library. You can access and edit your photos the way you usually do, no matter where the originals are stored. This feature also allows you to add hard drives one at a time, whenever you need them. So your setup can grow along with your library.